I hope you know
by wordsandtea
Summary: Rumours are spreading like a forest fire when Scorpius Malfoy, former Beauxbatons student, attempts Hogwarts for his sixth year. It's Albus' responsibility as a Slytherin prefect to take care of him, but how long will he manage to poise between the strange red and golden attraction that draws him in closer and the hateful muttering that starts as soon as Scorpius enters a room?
1. Chapter 1

The potion class room had always been his favourite one. The dark colours of the walls and the wooden tables and the high windows made it look like the old crypt of an ancient alchemist, with all the phials crowded together on the shelf in the back behind Professor Slughorn's table. There was always that mysterious green light, the same one that filled the Slytherin common room, and the air tasted different every time he entered the crypt, depending on which potion they were about to brew, or which potion was brewed during the lesson before.

Though today, the smell was not mysterious or magic at all – he recognised damp sweat and fresh earth after rain, as well as something sweet that sent him back to chocolate frogs on his first train ride to Hogwarts.

"I don't recall this being an insanitary version of Honeydukes", he whispered to Matthew Hewer, the bloke next to him who happened to be his best friend since they had shared a dorm together for 5 years.

There were two other guys as well, but potion class was joined by the Ravenclaws, as usually, so he lost track of them. Karl Jenkins and Alexander Nott possessed the two beds near the door, while Albus slept between Matt and the empty bed next to the window. The boys usually used that one for throwing dirty clothes onto it until the house elves would get them.

"Are you kidding?" Matt frowned at him, more than obviously confused about his friend. "There isn't any sweat. It's the Three Broomsticks and.. Roses, I suppose." His frown turned into a mildly worried expression. "Al, you don't think we will mix Butter Beer with Roses, don't you?"

"What are you talking about? This is clearly chocolate, not Butter Beer!"

Suddenly, a hand landed on his shoulder, and a curious redhead sneaked over his shoulder. "Boys, what are you talking about?"

Rose turned to pull Matthew into a tight hug before Albus could even open his mouth. Instead, he growled and covered his face in his hands. Cousin, his friend since birth, and he got ignored as soon as Matt was anywhere near her.

But as much as the constant snogging of two of his best friends annoyed him, he couldn't take amiss. If he had someone, he probably wouldn't be able to take his hands off of them either. Though, girls weren't really his area. He had been on a few dates with one of Rose's friends for a while, Clarisse Vane, and it had been nice, but he had never really liked her hand in his or her fragile arms around him.

After that, he went out with the Hufflepuff head boy, which had felt a lot better, and he had a big crush on him back then, but he never truly fell in _love_. After he realised that, he broke up with Chris immediately; he was too gentle, and deserved a man who could actually return his feelings properly.

"If you lot could convene around the table, please? It's the first class of the new year, but I _beg_ your attention since I prepared something very special for you", Professor Slughorn announced and pulled Albus out of his thoughts. He immediately rushed forwards and inspected the phials and caldrons that were positioned on the dark wood.

Potions was his best class besides astrology, and he enjoyed being good at it. He ignored the people that now gathered together around him and leaned in closer to the soft pinkish potion that gave off that confusing smell. His mind rattered through the advanced potion book he had devoured during summer holidays, until he remembered an entry on various love potions.

There was one where you had to mix a part of your body – a hair or something similar – into the potion, it was said to attract the drinking person's attention to you for around twenty-four hours. But it was supposed to have no smell, which, as he thought, would make it a lot easier to sneak it into a person's pumpkin juice.

That potion had been followed by a long text on how it didn't cause actual love etcetera etcetera, but he was almost sure he the potion in front of him was the one which description had followed afterwards.

The name was Amortentia, if he remembered it correctly, and it smelled differently depending on what attracted one. He hadn't known yet that sweat attracted him, he didn't even like Quidditch that much, but he chose wisely to ignore that part.

"This thing here is Felix Felicis, also called liquid luck. It is extraordinary hard to brew, can somebody explain why? Yes, Miss Granger-Weasley?"

Albus didn't listen to his cousin as she started to explain. He heard her, but he did not process her words. Had he smelled that before? Anywhere? He had always liked chocolate, sure, but who didn't. Sweat, rain … nothing, not a single face came across his mind. If that potion was referring to one specific person – which he was sure of, he knew for a fact that Matthew's and Rose's first date took place in the Three Broomsticks and that the perfume she used smelled like the flower which gave her her name – he had not met him yet.

Potion class was over way to soon. After Professor Slughorn shooed them out of his classroom, he went back into the Slytherin common room; his next class would be only after lunch. Care of magical Creatures, even though taught by Rubeus Hagrid, was one of his least favourite classes. He loved the creatures, for sure, but feeding Flobberworms was even more boring to him than watching a Quidditch game.

At least his expectations could not possibly be disappointed, and he somehow managed to make it through the day without falling asleep during Hagrid's class. Defence against Dark Arts were a pain in the ass, because everybody expected him to be "as brilliant as the boy who lived" which he, obviously, wasn't.

What mostly annoyed him was that his father really hadn't been _that_ good. Sure, the Patronus and stuff, but he had read all the books about the Battle of Hogwarts and how Voldemort had been defeated – even he could cast an Expelliarmus-Spell. There really wasn't anything tricky about that.

At dinner, he sat between Matthew and Alexander, Rose and Karl sitting opposite of them. "Who's that boy over there?", Alexander asked suddenly, a spoon of pudding halfway to his mouth. Albus gulped and layed his own spoon down. Had he expressed yet that he absolutely loved not only chocolate, but chocolate pudding as well?

"Which one? There are many boys in this hall, you know", he answered dryly. Rose kicked his leg under the table. "Oi! What was that for?"

Rose grinned. "Be nice, little cousin. Besides, he can probably hear you", she added in a lower voice and nodded into the direction of a boy who sat lonely at the end of the Slytherin table, nervously glancing around.

"Who the hell is that? I haven't seen him in any of my classes today." Matthew frowned at the silver-blond boy. "Do you think the hair is dyed?" This time, it was Albus who kicked the other boy. "Stranger sitting on our table, wearing Slytherin robes, definitely not sorted in yesterday, and you are worried about his _hair_?"

"Well, it is abnormally bright, isn't it?" Matt shrugged. Albus and Rose rolled their eyes simultaneously. "You thought my hair was dyed, too", Rose said and glared at her boyfriend accusingly. "But I love it now!", Matt hurried to say, reached over the table and took her hand. Rose laughed and continued eating with her other hand. "Let go of me, you complete idiot."

"Al, isn't it kind of your job to ask him who he is? You know, with the whole prefect thing." Alexander winked at him. "Attractive guy, even I can see that. Is he your type?"

Albus growled and tried to resist the urge to strangle his friend right there and then. "Stop trying to put me up with every attractive guy you see!"

A few heads turned around to him and his cheeks started burning. "Mind your own business", he murmured into the direction of a few way too curious young Ravenclaw girls, before he turned back to his pudding. "So you are saying he _is_ attractive?" Alexander's grin went bigger from minute to minute. "No! Yes. I don't know, maybe. How am I supposed to tell when he sits that far away?"

Karl, who had remained quiet until now, sighed and gave all of them a deadpanned glare. "How about all of you shut up and eat or give me your pudding as well?"

"No way!" Matthew yelled and, frightened somebody could steal his precious dessert, continued eating hectically. Albus rolled his eyes at his best friend, then risked another glance at the unknown boy before he continued eating as well.

A few minutes later, the boys decided to go back into the Slytherin common room. Rose kisses Matthew goodnight, as usually, and Albus turned away like usually. "Goodnight guys!" She waved and smiles happily before she hurried up the stairs, to where she had seen a group of Ravenclaw girls. "Clara, Lucy, wait for me!"

Alexander turned around as they took another stair that went down to their dorms. "He isn't following us, is he? Where the fuck is he?"

"Developing a small crush yourself, are you?" Albus grinned and slapped his back. "Welcome on the other side, man."

"No way! There's this girl, Clara, the one you went out with last year, remember? She's super cute. Why did you let her go?" Albus deadpanned him. "Oh, that's why. Sorry pal. Anyways, I'm just trying to set you up with someone, okay? You didn't date anyone since that Hufflepuff guy last year."

"And did you date anybody? Leave me alone", Albus murmured, getting seriously annoyed with that shit. If he should decide to date anybody, it was his own choice, and he didn't need any help with that. He didn't want a disaster like last year again. He knew he broke that guy's heart. He didn't want to do that ever again by going out with someone he wasn't 100% sure he loved. And he sure didn't love a boy he had met just minutes ago.

"Ictus Draconis", he murmured at the stone wall, which opened in front of him and let the small group in. He felt himself calm down by the Dungeon immediately. He wandered through the green light and threw himself at a black armchair and took a deep breath.

Then, he felt someone nudging his arm. "Hey, didn't mean to offend you", Alexander started concerned. Albus sighed. "I know why you are doing this. I'm the queer one, I need to be supported, right?"

Alexander frowned. Matthew sighed as well. "He doesn't mean it like that, Al, you know that." The black-haired prefect crossed his arms repulsively. "Would he _support me_ if I was straight? Did he ever try to hook you up with Rose? _No_."

"For the record, I make jokes about everyone's relationships", Alexander said, slightly hostile now.

"But not _constantly_ , Alex, and you know that! I don't need a special treatment just because I am not into boobs", Albus hissed, and faced the other way.

"Okay, okay, calm down guys." Karl ruffled both of their heads before sitting down in between them. "First of all, boobs are great, even if you aren't attracted to them, Al, you should respect them." Albus sighed. "I _do_ respect them, but–" "Shush, I am talking now. Alexander, stop whatever you are currently doing, Albus, stop complaining about what he is currently doing. I think the two third-years over there are fighting, I wanna hear what they say."

Matthew slapped the back of his head. "God damnit, am I the only sane person here? Not wanting to hook you up, Al, but I really _really_ don't recognise to have ever seen that pal."

Before Albus could open his mouth to answer him, the door, which was visible from inside the dungeon, swung open. Everyone automatically went quiet as Headmistress McGonagall entered the common room, followed by the boy they were just talking about. Authoritative like she always was with her strict black bun and the green robes, the walked into the middle of the room, the boy staying close behind her.

"Quiet, please. Thank you." She looked around, her gaze resting on Albus for one second, then moving on. "From this day on, you will welcome a new fellow student in your rows. He went to the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic for his first five years, but due to certain incidents he decided to spend his sixth and seventh year here in Hogwarts.

"I await open-minded respect from every one of you. Mr. Potter, Mr. Hewer, Mr. Nott, Mr. Jenkins; Mr. Malfoy will be placed in your dormitory. Oh, and Mr. Potter, as a prefect of the same year it is your responsibility to guide our new student around. I wish a good evening for all of you."

With that, she patted the boy's shoulder and left without another word, or explanation, or anything. Albus guessed he really should not be interested in whatever these certain incidents were, but it was quite spectacular in the magic world to change schools two years before graduation. Especially since the boy must have been in France for most of his time. Albus only hoped the boy could speak fluent English.

He was about to stand up and make his way over to the boy as he realized how his friends froze in shock. "What is it?", he whispered to Matthew, and noticed how everyone else was murmuring as well, everyone's eye pinned on the new boy, who kept his eyes on his feet while he waited, just waited, quietly.

"He is a _Malfoy_. His father was a death eater, just like his grandparents." Matt frowned and glared at Albus concerned. "Will you be okay? I can come with you."

Albus raised one brow, his face growing a little colder. "I am the son of Harry Potter, and I suck at everything he was oh so talented in. I think I can manage talking to a boy who is new and needs our help, because he is nothing else than that."

His anger growing, he stood up. "Everyone, shut your mouths. Don't you all have homework to do? Don't start lagging behind in the first week." Albus straightened his shoulder as he walked over to the Malfoy boy. He had to be a role model now, and he hated that, but his intentions were sincere. If anyone could understand the weight of a famous dad, no matter what said dad had done, it was him.

"Hey. Malfoy, right? I am Albus Severus Potter. If you want, I can show you around. Or I can show you the dorm first, in case you are tired." He heard Matthew snickering and bit his lip, determined to ignore his friend. He reached out his hand. "I would like to be your friend as well." He kept in the "It must be hard to know nobody in here" that he was about to say, because he knew that if he were the new boy, he wouldn't want any pity either.

The boy looked up for the first time. He took his hand and his greyish blue eyes seemed to pierce right into Albus' soul. "I'd love that. And the dorm sounds nice, thank you."

He spoke without any accent, which surprised Albus. His voice was strangely soothing, kind of deep but still really soft; he was too stunned to describe it otherwise, which surprised him as well. What didn't surprise him was a loud crashing noise when Matthew's laugh grew louder, that idiot most likely managed to fell off his armchair.

"Ignore him", he whispered and let go of Malfoys' hand. "Follow me, it's right down there", he said in a normal voice as he led the blond boy to the staircase in the right corner. "The girl's dorms are on the left, but don't even try to get there. My friend did once, the stairs transformed into actual snakes and tried to strangle him."

"Down there", Matthew gasped in the background, followed by another crash, probably Alexander or Nick hitting him.

Albus growled, shaking his head before he climbed down the stairs. He didn't hear the other boy's steps, but he heard him sigh as soon as they were out of view. "Thank you for saying you wanted to be my friend."

Albus, who had reached the sixth year boy's dorm and pushed the door open, turned around abruptly. "I didn't say that for the others. I meant it." He smiles, insecure yet friendly. "You seem to be a nice guy. Don't listen to them, they're all idiots."

The Malfoy followed him through the door and glared around, smiling faintly at the dark green curtains. "I know about the rumours. They're saying Voldemort is my father." He shrugged, not seeming to be affected by that in any way.

"Voldemort is dead", Albus frowned and shut the door closed.

"I know. And they should know, too." Malfoy shrugged again. "I don't really care."

Albus glared back at him, slightly impressed. "But you went to Beauxbatons because of that, didn't you?"

The blond boy's face grew colder. "My father's idea. I don't appreciate talking about it."

Albus bit his lip, knowing he probably ruined everything just with that if he didn't apologize soon enough. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to get too close to you. Like, metaphorically speaking, you are like ten feet away after all." He stopped himself from talking when he realized he had absolutely no idea what on earth he was talking.

Metaphorically speaking? Really? That guy wasn't an idiot, Albus could tell that much, and he was pretty sure he could have guessed he didn't mean standing close to him. He had eyes, after all. Piercing, somehow stunning eyes. He felt his palms getting sweaty the longer the boy was looking at him.

"Um.. so, what is your first name? I prefer to leave the surname thing to the teachers."

"I am Scorpius", the blond boy said, the tiniest smile on his face. Albus gasped. "Like the constellation?"

Malfoy's … no, Scorpius' smile widened a little. "Weird, isn't it?"

"Not at all!" Albus tried his hardest to stay cool, but it wouldn't quite work out. "I love Scorpius. Scorpion. The constellation. Not you, of couse. No offence though. I'm sure you are nice. I said that already, haven't I? The constellation is really beautiful. It lies in the southern hemisphere, and it is Latin for scorpion, right? The zodiac sign. Oh, I'm sure you know that." Albus took a deep breath. He was talking shit again, and he could feel his face growing hot, damn it, he felt so nervous when these eyes rested on him, so suddenly aware of his messy bound tie and his curly, untidy hair. "What I meant to say is, the name is cool", he finished and turned around, an desperate try to hide his flushed face.

"Albus is a nice name as well." Scorpius' voice wasn't mocking; he wasn't trying to make fun of him. It was so soft and sincere that Albus turned towards him again. "Albus and Severus were two headmasters of Hogwarts, right? A powerful name, I think."

"Thank you", Albus stuttered, suddenly the awkward boy he always managed to hide from his friends. "Oh, the beds. The one next to the window is free. I am sleeping next to you."

"In a different bed, I suppose." Scorpius smirked shyly.

"Of course!" Albus stammered sheepishly and sat down on his own bed, because he really didn't know what else to do, and these eyes still were on him.

Scorpius stepped over to the bed next to the window and pulled the closed curtains to the side. Albus secretly thanked god that it was just the second day this year at Hogwarts, and it wasn't covered in dirty clothes. It was a bit too soon for Scorpius to see his boxershorts. Way too soon. Too soon? Albus frowned at himself for what the hell that 'too soon' implied, and watched Scorpius sitting down.

"Can you show me around tomorrow? I think I might go to sleep soon, actually. Getting all the way to Hogwarts was kind of exhausting, to be honest."

Albus nodded immediately. "Of course! Don't worry, you will get used to live here soon. It's actually quite nice." He smiled and glared over to Scorpius.

It wasn't until then that he notices the incredible long legs, nicely covered in skinny black jeans, and the curly bright wisps of hair that lightly fell over his forehead when he looked down. Or the long, dark lashes that concealed these eyes as he didn't look into Albus eyes but to the side, as if the boy got insecure about suddenly being less than ten feet apart from him.

"Thank you", he said timidly, still not looking at him. Albus gulped. His friends had been right, that boy really was damn attractive. Even more than attractive, he was stunning.

His voice was a little huskier than usually when he answered.

"You're welcome."


	2. Chapter 2

When Albus returned to the common room, the chamber was filled with loud chattering and babbling, especially by the younger students, and as much as it annoyed him, he knew that there was next to nothing he could do to stop the gossiping about his new roommate – you didn't need to be good at fortune telling to figure out every single dialog within these dark wooden walls was circling around him.

He cleared his throat and stood still, waiting for them to calm down. He wasn't all that popular, but at least some of his fellow students sold him a certain amount of respect, maybe less because he was their prefect and more because he was the son of Harry fucking Potter, but he decided that there were more serious issues to worry about for now.

Appealing to the common Slytherin ambition, he started talking. "Guys, I hate to boss around, but if that shit doesn't stop by tomorrow, I will ask a teacher to take points from us. I can assure you that Scorpius Malfoy is not the son of Voldemort, who was killed in 1987. This guy here is around 16 years old, which means he was born around" he paused "2006. So, if you could please stop spreading rumours –"

A small boy stood up. "He's still a Malfoy", he announced. "His parents were death eaters. I expected him to be in Azkaban."

"And I expected more dignity of someone who calls himself a member of Slytherin." He hissed through his clenched teeth, yet secretly cringing about how much he sounded like Professor McGonagall, knowing well that after he was finished, Matthew would never let him forget this. Ever.

"You can't chose who your father is, but you can choose whether to be an asshole or not." He shot a glance of burning hostility to the boy who spoke up, then turned around to wander to his friends. He wasn't surprised to find Matthew with a half grinning, half bewildered expression.

"Dude, I think your popularity just hit rock bottom."

Albus gritted his teeth. "Love you too, Matt. But really, he is a nice guy. Went to sleep. Don't think he wanted to come back up here."

Matthew chuckled. "Did you show him your bed?" Albus had somehow forgotten his best friend's behaviour from before. Emphatically calm, he shoved the sleeves of his robe upwards before turning towards his best friend, and hit the back of his head in probably the most severe way he ever did. "For god's sake, stop that", he groaned, ignoring Matthew's complaining.

"I just want to help him out. No. I have to. Or McGonagall will make my life hell and afterwards she'll tell my dad and then mom will make my life hell."

"Oh, so sexually frustrated, Albie." Matthew smirked at him. Albus stared, horrified. "Albie? Please tell me my ears are mistaking me."

"So you _are_ sexually frustrated!"

Albus' cheeks turned bright red now. He tried his hardest to act like he was angry, but actually, he didn't think he could fool Matthew. His friend knew when he was angry and when he was embarrassed. And sadly, in that very moment, he was more than embarrassed.

"I'm not – goddamnit – did Alex tell you to do that? Where is he, by the way?"

Matthew knew he was just trying to change the topic, but shrugged anyways. "I told Karl to take him away from here before you could beat his ass." He tilted his head sideward. "Hey, didn't mean to stress you out, man."

Albus gritted his teeth again, more mad at himself than anyone. "It's fine."

Matt smiled innocent. "Is it okay then to tell you that your cousin and I had fucking amazing –"

Albus had his finger in his ears in an instant. "I can't hear you!" He yelled, the horrified look returning to his face. He didn't want to know what his cousin and his best friend did in their free time, at all.

"Awh, there's our cute little virgin." His hair was ruffles by Matthew before he could stare him dead. Geez, why did he even put up with him?

"I hate you", he muttered and punched him again, friendlier this time.

Matthew grinned, but shrugged anyways and drew his hand away. "Back to the topic. Is he hot? "

Albus stared at him for a while, figuring out whether he should lie or not, but this was his best friend. He trusted him not to tell the others. And if he did, he could still curse all of them.

"He is damn hot" he sighed, leaning back on the couch. "And I have to show him around tomorrow. I will die."

Matthew chuckled again, satisfied this time. "You won't."

"Still, tell my family that I love them just in case I will be a puddle of shame by tomorrow evening. Except for James. He wanted the invisibility cloak back, can you believe that?" Albus shook his head in disbelieve. "I mean, it's his, but _still_."

Matt laughed. "You are insane. Not that it's something new. Anyways, we should get our homework done before we drown in it. Which is, probably, next week. What did Slughorn tell us to do again?"

"Eleven inches about how Felix Felicis must not be abused", Albus yawned. "By Thursday. We have to days left but I guess you're right." He stood up and made a move to go towards their dorm in order to get a roll of parchment as well as ink and one of the new quills he had bought at Diagon Alley back in summer. Yet, he stopped as the gate swung open, revealing Alexander and Karl, who apparently just had the same thought.

"Actually, I might do it tomorrow and go to bed instead", he announced rather slighted, quickly waving at Matt. "Goodnight."

He could disappear quite fast when he wanted to, even with James currently having the cloak, and he _really_ did not want to face Alexander again soon, especially not today.

He was climbing down the stairs when his friends just entered the room.

While he stilled for a moment, pry as to whether they would talk about him, but the other ones in the common room were too loud to pick out the voices of his friends.

He sighed, pushing his hair back absentminded. They didn't hate him. He didn't even got into a super hard fight with them. Actually, he thought, it was less them being assholes and more him freaking out, but ever since he came out to his friends, Alex had been trying to show him how supporting he was or whatever. And he did not need that. He didn't want support, he just wanted to be accepted as normal; it had been hard enough to reach the point of being more or less normal because he was the son of Harry Potter.

Figuring out he should maybe get some rest before he snapped and ran back to yell at Alexander. He just hoped Scorpius was asleep already since he didn't want to seem life a creep stalking people while they were sleeping. Though, if he was completely honest, he kind of wanted to sneak a glance at that boy again.

Geez, he was definitely going to die tomorrow.

"I survived years in a dormitory full of other boys who run around half naked in the mornings, and now I'm probably going to losing my mind because of a stranger who looks good. I did nothing to deserve this", he murmured to himself before he pushed open the door to the dorm of the sixth year's boys.

The curtains of the bed next to the window were closed, and he didn't quite know whether to be happy or not. As quiet as he could, he closed the door behind him and sidled towards his own bed. He closed his own curtains as well and changed into the green pyjamas Grandma Molly had given to him for his last birthday; for he knew that he would want to die immediately if he had to face Scorpius only in his boxershorts tomorrow morning.

Still, he felt the urgent need to say something. Just in case Scorpius was still awake and just didn't want to talk. In which case it made no sense to say something, but he just couldn't resist clenching his fist around his blanket and glaring in the direction where the curtains were blocking the view to the bed next to his. "Goodnight", he muttered with a soft voice into the soundless air, waiting a moment for a response. As the room remained silent, he gritted his teeth in embarrassment and lay down quickly, pulling his leg against his body in an embryo-like position and the comfortable blanket up to his ears.

Just as he closed his eyes, a quiet sound pierced through the silence and caused his heart to flutter. "Goodnight, Albus Severus."

Thinking that nobody had ever said his full name in such a sweet and innocent way, he drifted off.

The next time Albus opened his eyes, soft, gleaming light sparkled through the curtains. He yawned quietly before sitting up and pulling them aside, blinking against the sun.

He never fully understood how he was able to see the sky when they were deep under the great lake, but at some point, he had stopped asking questions about Hogwarts. The roof of the great hall seemed to be the sky as well, after all. Maybe the founders were afraid that the Slytherin students might get depressed when constantly trapped surrounded by dark, mysterious underwater lights. Since it wasn't like they could just go outside or something.

"Morning Al, you are late. Had a rough night?" Matthew grinned at him and threw a pair of dirty socks at him.

"Shut up, asshole", Albus groaned while throwing the socks back at his friend. "I went to sleep."

"Yes yes, calm down already. He is still in there, by the way." Matt pointed at the bed between Albus' and the window. "Didn't know if we should wake him up. Alex and Karl went up for breakfast already, so don't worry, just come out of your cage already."

Albus glared at him silently for a few seconds, contemplating whether or not he should slap him again, but he decided not to. No violence until he got his first pancake.

He stripped out of his pyjama and, still half asleep, staggered over to his trunk to search for a new shirt. While he buttoned it up, he heard Matthew yawn. "Imma go to the bathroom", his friend mumbled and sounded just as done as he was himself, which was probably one of the reasons they got along – they definitely weren't morning people.

Albus stood up and put on black trousers that were, as he realized, not that different from the ones Scorpius had worn yesterday, but he would take every bet he didn't look just half as attractive in them.

While he fished for a pair of socks at the bottom of his trunk, he decided that he maybe should wake up Scorpius, knowing exactly Matthew wouldn't do it.

He grabbed his Slytherin-coloured tie and walked over to Scorpius' bed, tugging lightly on the curtains. "Scorpius? Are you awake?" He paused and waited. And waited. He tried again, louder this time. "Scorpius?"

This time, he heard quiet rustling, and the face of Scorpius Malfoy with probably the hottest bed hair ever appeared. "Hmm?" he muttered disorientated and ruffled through his blond, soft curls. Albus couldn't help but to blush.

"Um, you have to hurry up if you want to eat breakfast with us. First class starts in", he checked the clock on the wall, "a little less than an hour."

Scorpius fully pulled the curtains aside now and got up on his feet. "Oh. Thank you for waking me up. Good morning, by the way." He smiled, which only caused Albus to blush more.

"Y-yes, good morning", he stuttered before he quickly started to bind his tie. "Did you get your timetable already? I can check which classes I can escort you to." He smiled and bowed, getting calmer as he finally had an idea of what to do.

"Sure. Here." Scorpius reached into the trunk he had shoved under his bed and pulled out a paper, handing it over to Albus. "I think I have Charms first."

Albus pulled out his own timetable as well since he hadn't memorised it yet and compared the both of them. Apparently, Scorpius had chosen Arithmancy instead of Transformation, like he did himself, and History of Magic instead of Divination which caused him to be in a different DADA class, but other than that, their classes were similar "You should cling to Matthew for Arithmancy class, and I think Rose took History class too, she's my cousin. You'll probably meet her at breakfast."

Scorpius had gotten dressed by now, and he looked just as hot as he did yesterday. Albus cursed silently. This was definitely not fair. He ran his fingers through his own hair and decided that it was too late to fix it now.

Not that it would help much, his hair was pretty much always a mess and he had stopped caring about it just as he had stopped asking questions about Hogwarts. He would take a shower once he was finished with all of his classes.

"Um, hey, do you know how to tie a... well, a tie? Our uniforms were slightly different in Beauxbatons." Reluctantly, Scorpius glanced over at him.

"Oh, sure. Do you want me to –" he reached out to the loose tie around the other boy's shoulders, unsure whether to bind it directly around his neck or to bind it and then hand it over to him, and dear Salazar, he hoped that Scorpius would mistake his trembling fingers for sleepy clumsiness or something similar to that.

Just in that moment, Matthew came out of the bathroom, his hair still slightly wet after a shower. Albus froze, the edge of the tie between his fingers. Matthew stared at Albus' shocked face, then bit his lip to prevent himself from bursting out laughing.

"I'll go ahead. Hi Scorpius, by the way. Nice to meet you. See you later!" With that, he disappeared through the door. Albus barely had time to be thankful that, apparently, his friend decided against acting like an asshole towards Scorpius. Instead, he took the tie and furiously started binding it, hoping that it would somehow hide his bright red face.

He didn't exactly now yet what it was that turned him into a nervous wreck whenever this boy was around. It was similar to the feeling you get when you meet your favourite celebrity after years of admiring them, only that he knew Scorpius since a few hours and hadn't ever heard about him before.

He handed the done tie back over to him. Scorpius wrapped it around his neck and smiled at him. "Thanks again."

"Wanna go?" Albus shifted his weight from one foot to the other and bit his lip nervously, hoping the blush had disappeared by now.

"Is my hair okay? It always looks horrible when I wake up." Scorpius frowned and tugged at one curly strand of his. He glared back at Albus and explained, "I usually straighten it, but to be honest, I am starving."

Albus grinned, knowing that feeling all too well, though he usually was too hungry to stay in bed on the weekends instead of worrying about his hair. "You look fine. I mean –" he stopped himself this time before it got all awkward again. He forced himself to a nervous smile. "Let's get some pancakes before my cousin eats all of them."


	3. Chapter 3

Damn myself, back at it again with the long Hiatus. Still not as bad as Sherlock though, am I right? On the positive side, I finished writing down the whole plot with a few details. If I don't get caught in tons of school work again, I should be able to update sooner from now on. :)

ArmandDentrain oh, is it? I don't know, it seemed natural for me to send Scorpius to Beauxbatons first, despite the epilogue. I have another headcanon that he attempts his first year at Hogwarts but transfers to Beauxbatons after that because he gets harrassed too much in Hogwarts. I might use that one for another story that is already planned in the future ^^ Anyways, thank you very much!

willow256 I personally love awkward Albus. He is nice in the Cursed Child as well, but as you see, I have a different image of him :) Good to hear that you like it that way!

phoenica thank you again for pointing out my mistakes. They should be fixed now!

* * *

The Great Hall was still crowded with groups of loudly humming students as Albus and Scorpius entered through the portal.

"We'll eat over there," Albus explained, pointing over to the Slytherin table, which was at the other end of the hall. "I will show you the kitchen later, though. In case you miss dinner or Rose ate all the pancakes away already, the House Elves will feed you up."

Albus glared at Scorpius, who had stayed quiet until now, inhaling the atmosphere. The boy flashed him a smile. "I will remember that."

The black-haired prefect felt blood rise to his head with an incredibly fast speed. He opened his mouth to continue talking, but soon realized he had no idea what to say at all. Darting his eyes to the ground, he closed it again.

He knew that Scorpius stared at him, probably wondering what the heck was wrong with him, but if he found him weird, he didn't say anything. After a few moments, Scorpius nudged his shoulder shyly. "Over there, you said?"

"Huh?" Albus glared at him in the most bewildered way. _What?_

The corners of Scorpius' mouth twitched upwards, as if he was trying to stop himself from laughing, and he looked damn cute doing that. "The table where we eat", he reminded him gently.

"Oh. Yeah. Sure." Albus laughed bashfully. "My cousin is at the Gryffindor table, of course, but you should see her in action. No pancakes are safe from her." Mentally cringing over himself, he started walking towards his own table.

"You seem pretty fixed on pancakes as well. Do I have to be worried?" He chuckled quietly.

Albus crossed his arms in a pouting manner, but as he saw Scorpius' eyes lighting up, he couldn't help but smile. "If I was you, I'd hurry up," he said, winking subconsciously.

"You don't have to say that twice," Scorpius beamed, then hurried after him.

Albus was satisfied to say that he reached the table first. Nevertheless, his smile dropped when he saw Alexander sitting next to Matt, politely ignoring their arrival.

"Let's not sit with them", he muttered and chose a chair a few metres away from his friends.

Scorpius' face showed a small frown, but sat down across from him anyways. "Aren't they your friends?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"Yeah. We had a fight," Albus explained curtly. He did not want to be mean, god beware, but he really did not want to talk about Alexander either.

"Because of me?" Scorpius assumed as he looked down, hi hand slipping off the pudding he just reached for.

Heat rose to Albus' face once more, leaving him like a streetlight on fire. Scorpius couldn't know he wasn't straight, could he? No. Never.

 _God, end me_ , he thought desperately while pouring pumpkin juice into a glass and rushed it down all at once in a pathetic attempt to cool his light red coloured head down.

It wasn't until two seconds later that he realized it might not have been one of is brightest moments, as his trachea complained firmly over the sudden struggle of having to force down too much liquid at once.

Coughing loudly, he planted his head onto the table to welcome and accept his dead-ended walk of disgrace. At least, and most likely, this whole situation could not get any worse.

When his lungs had finally calmed down and his breath steadied, he dared to look up at Scorpius again, who shot him a concerned glare.

"Are you alright?" He asked politely, his hands crossed behind his plate that now had a bagel waiting on it.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Albus coughed, then took one deep breath as to prepare himself for the following conversation. "Why would you think that?"

Scorpius lifted one perfect eyebrow, yet a small chuckle escaped his lips. "Well, you pretty much coughed your lungs out not a minute ago," he stated.

If Albus' cheeks had paled again by now, it was no use, because now he blushed all over again. "No, no," he clarified, "Why would you think we got into a fight because of you?"

"Because I," Scorpius started, pointing his thumb towards his own chest, "am the son of Voldemort". He grimaced half annoyed, half sarcastic.

Albus' face dropped. "I really don't think you are," he said gently, cocking his head to one side. "And the others will stop as well. You are too young to be his son, anyways. Plus," he added with a soft smile on his lips, "You are way too nice. Really."

Scorpius lips twitched up in the most tender way. "Thank you, Albus. I appreciate that."

Albus felt himself swelling with pride. "I mean it. But, we really didn't fight because of you. We fought because, apparently, I am friends with a bunch of assholes. Except for Matt. He is fine."

"That kind of makes it sound like it was because of me but you don't want to admit it," Scorpius commented gingerly, his voice accompanied by anxiety.

"No! I swear." Albus took a bowl of porridge and started to ladle some of it onto his plate, silently weighing up how much he could say without accidentally throwing himself out of the cupboard.

"Something happened – before – last year already, in fact. I just kinda escalated yesterday. Don't you worry."

One could literally see the weight falling off of Scorpius' shoulders. Except for a certain raven-haired prefect, whose gaze was pinned to the other boy's bright ice blue eyes that lightened up with relief, just to darken again with concern.

"Will you be alright, though? They're your friends, after all."

"Of course I will," Albus answered immediately. Giving it a second thought, he shrugged and added; "I have you, have I?"

For a few moments, Scorpius stared at him bewilderedly, and Albus already regretted adding that last sentence. Then, he broke off into a smile once more. "You do, I guess."

Albus felt himself blush again, but for now, he decided he didn't much care. "That's something."

"I don't know if you trust me enough yet to talk about it to me," Scorpius started very slowly, contemplating every single word inside of his mind before he allowed his pale rose lips to form them. "We only met yesterday, after all. But if I am of any help for you, I'd be glad if you would let me know."

Albus found himself drowning in frozen seas, almost aw-ing out loud in delight as Scorpius politely, if not shyly looked down onto his bagel, more than obviously avoiding eye-contact.

A smile developed on Albus' face. "Thank you," he said softly, subconsciously leaning in closer to the other boy. "I appreciate it," he added, mockery glinting in the emerald green of his eyes.

Scorpius was glaring at him with a stunning intensity. For a brief moment, Albus wondered if he looked like that at everyone, or if he could consider himself as special to him.

 _I shouldn't care_ , he decided quickly, telling himself that if that question would still tickle him later, he would think about it then and definitely not now.

Making a quiet determined sounding noise, he grabbed a bagel and took a bite.

Looking up again, he found a gentle smile on Scorpius' lips. With another shaking breath, Albus found that he quite much liked it.

Scorpius took his own bagel, which he started eating in happy silence. Albus decided to do the same.

"We should go," Albus declared after Scorpius had finished his bagel. "I'm not even sure whether Professor Flitwick would even notice if we are late, but still, it's your first day here after all. Don't wanna spoil your motivation."

Scorpius flashed him a shy grin. "I have five years in Beauxbatons on my back, I don't think I have any motivation left, to be completely honest." He ran a hand through his hair. "But I want to get my NEWTs next year so we better go."

Albus nodded and made a note to himself that he better wouldn't ask Scorpius to drop out of classes just act cool. And he was kind of relieved he wouldn't have to.

As they headed for the entrance of the great hall, Albus suddenly stumbled forwards when someone half pushed, half hugged him from behind.

"Matt!" He growled without even looking. Only Matthew Hewer would greet him like that.

Scorpius turned around, his eyes slightly wider than they were before. "Good morning," he said politely, forcing a smile onto his anxious face.

It took Matthew a few seconds to respond, as if he had just now realized his best friend wasn't alone. Albus glared at him piercingly, silently trying to tell him to better be fucking nice to Scorpius if he didn't want to get slapped by a copy of Advanced Potion-Making later.

Eventually, Matthew's face broke into a wide smile. "You're the new guy, eh? Shame you went to bed that early. Nice to meet you though."

Albus released a breath he didn't know he was holding in. Thank god, Matt _was_ being nice. "What class are you heading to?" He asked in order to cover up his relief.

"Herbology. Want me to tell Professor Longbottom you miss him?" Matthew winked and Albus relief vanished on an instant. Instead, he gave his friend a glare of deadly annoyance.

"No, I don't," he growled, walking slightly faster. From his left, he felt Scorpius' curious glare, but he ignored it for now.

Matthew laughed. "Okay, I will tell him you miss him. See you at the coffee table, yeah?"

"Yeah, yeah," Albus muttered as Matt walked out of the castle to head towards the greenhouses. Finally, he turned over to Scorpius, his cheeks red.

"You know Professor Longbottom?" Scorpius dared to ask, his voice genuinely interested. Albus couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, he was friends with my dad when they went to school. It's cool. But also it really isn't because, you know, Matthew." Albus shrugged, Matthew seemed like a pretty good explanation, he thought. "I didn't choose the actual class, only the additional class which takes place only once a week, so I get mocked all the time. At home usually by my dad, but Matthew takes over that job as long as I am here"

Scorpius went silent for a moment. "We have him tomorrow, right?"

Albus nodded, noticing a sudden mood change within his new friend. "Yeah. Why?"

"My dad – he went to school with your dad. Obviously. You can read about it. Longbottom – I think I've heard the name before. Didn't get along well, my dad and Professor Longbottom." He struggled for words. "I don't think he'll like me much," he finally ended, pathetically trying to smile.

Being the awkward insecure mess he apparently was, Albus did not quite know what to do. Helplessly, he patted Scorpius' shoulder. "I'm sure he will. He really is cool. Don't worry."

Scorpius turned back to him, a smile on his lips, but, as Albus sadly noticed, it didn't reach his eyes.

"Hey, let's concentrate on Charms for now. Do you know Professor Flitwick? Tiny, white hair?"

Scorpius frowned. "What exactly do you mean with tiny?"

Albus shrugged. "Don't know for sure. One house elf? A half, maybe?" He shrugged again. "Just tiny."

Scorpius glared at him for a second, then laughed softly. "House elves are my absolute favourite kind of measurement."

Satisfied by his laugh, Albus smiled to himself and continued leading Scorpius to the Charms Classroom. A happy Scorpius was definitely the better Scorpius.

They were quite late, so by the time they arrived, almost every free seats were gone already. With a long sigh, Albus walked towards two empty tables in the front row and gestured Scorpius to sit down next to him.

They had just sat down when Professor Flitwick rushed into the room and climbed the tower of books behind his lectern – "I told you he was tiny," Albus whispered to Scorpius, who broke into a grin. "You did."

"Welcome, students," Professor Flitwick started with the weirdly high pitched voice of his. "As you may know, you will write your NEWTs next year. Therefore, you will need to learn to cast spells without talking!" Excited, he looked around, but nobody bothered to as much as nod. Not any less excited, the old Professor continued: "It is important that you all memorized the wand movements you learnt in the first place. Did you bring your wands? Wonderful, wonderful!"

A Ravenclaw girl in the last row raised her hand so suddenly that Professor Flitwick almost fell off his books. Balancing his tiny body using his arms and one leg, he asked her to talk. "Yes, Miss Parvarti?" He squeaked.

"Excuse me, Professor, but what the hell do we _need_ that for?" She asked with all seriousness she got.

When Albus turned around to her for a moment, he saw her eyes almost falling out. Apparently, he was not the only one who found that topic incredibly exhausting. Mainly because it had to do with spells also needed in Defence against Dark Arts, and his father had been oh so brilliant in that class, and everybody would expect him to be brilliant as well. Even though Albus knew exactly that his father was not able to produce a charm without talking.

Reminding himself that he should keep his grades up nevertheless, he raised his hand as well, but slower than Parvarti, which Professor Flitwick seemed to be very grateful about. "In a battle, it will be a surprise moment for your enemy – sorry, opponent – and you have a better chance not to be blocked."

"Very well, Mister Potter. Now, I want you to pick a partner and cast disarming charms at each other. Only wands, no talking please!"

The class broke off into wild chattering, and after a few tries to calm them down, Professor Flitwick gave up and carefully climbed off his tower, ready to assist and help his students where help was needed.

Albus didn't need to be good at Divination to foresee that basically everyone would need help, because his cousin was not there to save the day with her brilliance in everything.

Scorpius glared at him, shyly. "Do you have a partner yet?" He asked, obviously expecting Albus to have other friends in this class. Well, he did actually, because he heard Alexander and Karl talking somewhere behind him – something about casting a silence charm over themselves in order to be able to cast charms without being heard, which was quite smart, as Albus thought – but he still didn't want to talk to them.

"Now I do," he answered with a smile and stood up, waving his wand at Scorpius in a sarcastic manner and immediately cringing at himself because of his childish behaviour. However, Scorpius didn't seem to mind.

"Great," he said, his voice thankful.

Albus nodded, his lips twitching upwards. "Now, no need to get yourself ready because, I'm warning you, I am definitely the one that will go down here."


	4. Chapter 4

As it turned out, Albus' earlier calculations concerning that every student would need help since his cousin wasn't there were dead wrong.

Okay, maybe not dead wrong, but definitely wrong.

The person he hadn't included in his calculations was Scorpius fricking Malfoy, who calmly stood 20 feet across from him, his wand drawn and held firmly between two fingers and his thumb. "Do you want to go first?" He offered, a tiny smile flattering his lips.

Albus could hardly manage to give a proper answer. _Damn_ , that boy was pretty enough when he was lazily sitting on a bed, but seeing him upright with tensed muscles and his Slytherin robe fluttering around a pair of long legs hidden beneath black skinny jeans – Albus thought it had to be forbidden to watch him.

"I- I will start, okay," he finally managed to stutter und drew his wand as well; 11 inches of dark hazel wood with a core of a dragon's heartstring.

Closing his eyes to keep away the godly image in front of his eyes, he tried to clear his mind of whatever rather not godly fantasy tried to get a grasp on him. Spells, he needed spells, goddamn it.

Eventually, he settled for the only one that came into his mind – even though he hated that charm just because it was the one that made his father oh so popular.

 _Expelliarmus_ , he thought, and waved his wand at Scorpius the way he learnt to.

Nothing happened.

Really, he wasn't even that surprised anymore. Taking a deep breath which sounded way more like a sigh, he tried again.

And again.

After around the tenth time, he started getting angry at why that stupid piece of tree just wouldn't do what the fuck he wanted. How was this shit supposed to help him to save time in battles when he'd need half an hour to even cast a charm?

As he shook his wand furiously, a hand patiently patted his shoulder. _What_ , he wanted to snap at whoever it was, but as he turned his head and opened his mouth, Scorpius was standing next to him.

His angry face fell.

"Scorpius," he stated.

Scorpius smiled sheepishly. "Yeah."

"Um." Albus said, showing off his complete and utter intelligence once more. "Weren't you, like, over there a few seconds ago?" He gesticulated over to where Scorpius had stood, and where he thought he were standing been while he was trying to disarm him.

"That was before you tried to kill your wand," Scorpius said and gave off a quiet, breathy laugh.

"Well, if I wouldn't kill my wand, my opponent would kill me within seconds!" Albus defended himself and pouted, although more because he was embarrassed he had let himself go like that than because he actually was sulky.

Scorpius smirked. "You have to be calmer about it. Like that." He pointed his wand at a pillow that was stored in the back of the room, often used as airbags when practising more dangerous spells. Within a few seconds, it was floating mid-air.

"Salazar! How did you do that?" Albus' jaw dropped. Scorpius shot him a mild, confused look, his lips frozen in a shy half-grin, brows drawn together but eyes soft and pure like a phoenix's tears.

"You don't only have to think the spell, but also what you want to do. Like ..." The boy struggled for words, bending his wand in his hands. "Like, you have to imagine what happens due to the spell. Imagine my wand flying away or me tripping over my shoes. When you have that image clear in your mind, you think the spell. Was that– is that understandable?"

Albus, even though his head was cocked to the left side, nodded. "Thank you," he said, then smiled. "It will be hard to imagine you tripping over your own feet, though."

The other boy's eyes widened slightly. "Oh? Why?"

"You seem way too graceful for that," Albus answered, still smiling. Then, when he saw the soft blush on Scorpius' pale cheeks, he silently cursed himself. _Dude, you're being gay as fuck again_ , he wanted to scream at himself until he had melted into a puddle of shame. "I-I mean– um... You... I mean–" He as pretty sure that, by now, his face had reached the colour of a fresh tomato.

"Thank you, I guess," Scorpius said softly, stopping Albus from his ridiculous attempt to dig for an excuse by doing so and leaving the raven-haired boy completely stunned.

"Y-yeah," he muttered, then took a step backwards. "I... I'll try again then."

Scorpius flashed him another kind smile that got Albus' knees all wobbly and unsteady.

Just when Scorpius made a move to go back to his duelling position, a new voice leapt out of the general background murmuring. "Hey, Potter!"

Albus' first thought was, _God no_. With his second thought, he started panicking. "Clarisse, what do you want?" He asked, attentively, and his grasp around his wand tightened.

He had never really figured out how she had taken it that he broke up with her, but since she still was friends with Rose, he had thought they were cool. Her voice though told a whole different story.

Scorpius glared at him, his eyes asking what was going on, but he politely kept quiet and Albus didn't really want to answer him.

"Didn't manage that stuff already? Would have guessed so. Since you are, you know, rather familiar with wands." Her voice was as sharp as the claws of an eagle, her eyes small as if she had found the perfect prey to hunt down and make a clean kill. Suddenly, he was painfully aware of her resemblance to her house's heraldic animal.

Another thing he was aware of was Scorpius standing just a few feet behind him. "I– I don't know what you are talking about," he murmured, eyes flashing over to Scorpius who quickly looked down in return.

"Alex came to me the other day," Clarisse continued, "and told me what happened." Her eyes flashed over to Scorpius. "And look, we really got a death eater in our halls!"

Unable to say anything, Albus' head flew around to Scorpius. The boy froze right where he was, his eyes wide open with panic and fear. "I'm not – I'm not a death eater," he said weakly, his voice dim.

"Is it true you are the son of Voldemort?" She asked, a guiltless smile on her face, a smile as thick and sticky as honey, not quite fitting her deadly voice.

"Fuck off, Clarisse," Albus hissed instinctively, but he still couldn't move. Damnit, what did they even have teachers for?

"I'm _Clara_ ," she hissed back, eyes now burning with anger. "You probably forget that over sucking of your new death eater boyfriend, eh?"

Albus' mouth opened, just to shut it again. Before he could think of something to say that was better than "fuck off", Scorpius took a step forward. "Clara, right?" He smiled politely, though something within his eyes seemed broken like shattered ice. "Neither am I a death eater, nor am I dating Albus. And Voldemort died before I was born, but you look smart enough to already know that."

"Of– of course I know that," she hissed, obviously caught off guard. She was what you would think of first when you'd hear the word Ravenclaw: Knowledge was everything for her, and that made her have as much pride as a Slytherin had.

Just as she opened her mouth again, a small figure came across them. "Students, shouldn't you be practising? You need that for your NEWTs!" Professor Flitwick demanded, hands propped against his tiny hips.

Clarisse shot them one last infuriated glare, before she twirled around and stepped over to her Ravenclaw friend, who was curiously glancing over to them.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Albus said with a smile so polite and respectful that Scorpius would be proud of it. "We were just exchanging advice on how to produce a charm without talking."

"Oh." Professor Flitwick obliviously nodded, apparently proud with how serious his students took him as a teacher. "Then, why don't you show me how you take these advices? Mr. Malfoy, would you mind?"

Albus sighed in relief, something he could do very well without making a noise. When you had one older brother and one younger sister, you kind of learned how to do stuff like that.

Scorpius smiled. "Of course, Professor." Before Albus could even do as much as to blink, his wand was already in Scorpius' hand.

"Wonderful, Mr. Malfoy! Continue, continue." And with these words, he left them alone again. With a stunning precision, Scorpius threw the wand back to him. Albus, who usually wasn't able to catch a snitch if it was 15 years old and floating right in front of his nose, caught it with ease.

"Scorpius, I– are you okay?" He asked once Professor Flitwick had disappeared from his sight.

"Of course," the boy answered in an instant, his gaze aimed at his shoes.

"They will calm down soon," Albus said remorsefully, wanting to pat his shoulder the way Scorpius had done it to him before, but he was too far away.

Scorpius' shoulders straightened as he finally looked up at him, yet his eyes had closed from letting any emotion be seen. "I think we should continue practicing."

Albus winced as if he had been slapped, but nodded. "Yeah, we should."

By the end of the lesson, he still wasn't able how to produce a charm without speaking, but the more often Scorpius disarmed him, the softer the boy's gaze became, until a small victorious smirk was adulating his lips, and Albus thought that was pretty much worth it.

They parted ways on the corridor. "I have Defence Against Dark Arts now," Scorpius had remarked. "I have to go that way, right?" He had pointed over his shoulder; the opposite way of the one Albus had to go.

"Yup. Have fun. I'll see you at dinner." Albus smiled at him, relief swapping over him when Scorpius smiled back.

"Yeah. See you." He waved and turned around, following a small group of students that apparently were on their way to the Defence Against Dark Arts classroom as well.

"See you," Albus murmured, even though Scorpius was already too far away for him to reach. Then, realizing the amount of embarrassment within his actions, he turned around as well and hoped that nobody had witnessed him staring after the boy like a stupid first-grade seeing the beautiful ghost of Helena, the Grey Lady, for the first time.

"Al!" For once, he wasn't startled or immediately going over to defence when he heard a voice from behind. Instead, he just continued walking, knowing that his friends would keep up with him anyways.

"Hi, Matt," Albus answered.

"How's everything going with Blondie?" Matt was walking next to him now, smirking at him, eyebrows wiggling.

Albus flushed bright red. "What?!"

Matthew glared at his shocked face for one second, then burst out laughing. "Salazar, you should see your face! Seen a ghost or what?"

The raven-haired prefect bit his bottom lip, silently cursing his earlier comparison of him to a first year seeing the ghost of the Grey Lady. "Nope," he grunted, crossing his arms over his chest.

His friend's face suddenly fell. "Hey, you aren't mad at me, right? I tried to be nice to him. I was, wasn't I?"

Albus smiled faintly. "Yes, you were."

Matthew frowned. "Then what is it?"

"Did you know Alex befriended Clarisse?" he asked while he kept walking towards the next stair case. He didn't give Matthew the time to answer. "She came over to us during Charm class. Knows I'm gay. And is of the opinion that Scorpius is a death eater and I'm, I quote, _sucking him off_."

He was too pissed at his ex girlfriend to blush. But he wasn't too comfortable with talking about his sexuality either, so he just stared angrily at the floor.

"Dude," Matthew said, helpfully as always. Either way, Albus nodded furiously and ran a bit to reach the staircase before it changed its mind and moved away. Matt ran after him and jumped onto the first stair. "She really said that?" He asked then.

"Well, you know, she didn't walk over to me and say, hey Albus, long time no see, I know you are gay," he hissed, though more at the mental image of her than at Matthew. He sighed. "She just kinda acted like a straight up bitch."

"I didn't think he would tell her," Matthew announced after a small pause. "I mean, he tried really hard to be accepting and stuff." He frowned. "Not that he was very successful doing so," he added, remembering last evening.

"Oh right, he probably just wanted to show his tolerance for me by running to his newest crush and telling her. Did he forget she went out with me for a while? No wonder she's salty." They climbed the next stair together, and Albus was thankful that he had _something_ to do at least, or else he would have probably followed the persistent urge to crush something.

"Want me to talk to him?" Matthew offered. Albus shook his head.

"No. I mean, if you want to, okay. But I really don't want anything to do with him right now. Or maybe I could tell him to go and shag my ex if that keeps her from bragging about how I like dicks just as much as she does," Albus hissed.

"It's been a while since I saw you freaking out like that," Matthew stated innocently.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Albus demanded to know. He felt his blood boiling under his skin inside of his veins.

Matthew huffed. "Calm down, mate. I'm just saying that you usually don't use any vulgar language or swear words, like, at all."

Albus frowned as to what the heck his friend was implying there. "I have a younger sister, I wasn't allowed to most of my life."

"Yeah, yeah." Matt patted his shoulder, gently gesticulating him to calm the fuck down. "How is Malfoy?"

" _Scorpius_. And I don't think he is doing too well." Albus frowned. "I hope they don't come to him in Defence Against Dark Arts."

When Matthew didn't answer, Albus looked up at him. "What?"

His friend shrugged. "Just wondering. Everybody kinda seems to think there's something going on between you two."

Albus blushed horribly. "One of them is my ex girlfriend and the other is my ex friend! Of course they want to embarrass me!"

Matthew grinned. "And the third one is your best friend who you love with all your heart, is that right so far?"

"Screw you."

He laughed. "But really. Even I can see he is attractive. And I really, _really_ like boobs."

"A certain pair of boobs especially, I hope!" Rose flung an arm around her boyfriend, making him crash into Albus.

"Hi Rose," he greeted his cousin, even though he was too busy with messing up his best friend's hair to talk to him.

"Of course I do, babe," Matthew whispered back and kissed her lips. Albus choked. _Babe?_

Rose giggled and threw hair head back, fuzzy red waves of hair bobbing up and down with her. "Albus, who is that attractive guy you are talking about?"

"Nobody," Albus answered immediately, his cheeks reddening again. _Damnit._

"Is it that new Slytherin folk you were talking to during breakfast?" Rose asked, glaring at him, blue eyes wide with curiosity.

"Don't know what you are talking about," he grunted, burying his hands deep in the pockets of his Slytherin robe.

Rose grinned at him. "Come on, Al. I won't believe you if you say you don't think he looks hella fine."

Matthew gasped playfully. "You have a boyfriend, ma'am!"

Their lips met again for a quick kiss, but then both of them turned to Albus. He sighed. "Of course he is attractive."

Matthew grinned and punched his shoulder. "I knew it!"

Albus felt himself blush even more. "I mean, yes, he is damn hot. But it's not like– I don't want to go out with him. More like– see, when we watched Suicide Squad during summer break, you said Harley Quinn was bloody hot as well, but that doesn't mean you want to date her."

Matthew nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "Mhm. I'll let that one count. But couldn't you imagine it?"

Before he could even try to figure out what he was supposed to answer to that, a certain redhead poked his friend's cheek. "Oi, who is that Harley Quinn?"

"Nobody!" Matthew denied quickly, fastening up his steps. "We should, um, hurry if we don't want to be late!"

"You never want to be early for Divination!" Rose complained, but hurried to catch up with him anyways.

Albus couldn't help but grin and decided it was time to help Matt. "But I want to, cousin, and as a prefect I can take points from Ravenclaw if you are late!"

"You can't!" Rose outraged, or at least she tried to. In the end, she burst out laughing. "Okay, okay, let's go."

Albus smiled as he followed them, but Matthew's question stuck in his mind like a very persistent shadow of icy blue. Could he imagine it?

* * *

A/N: How do you guys like this story so far? Please let me know :)


	5. Chapter 5

Finally back with a new chapter! Prepare for a tiny bit of angst and a hell lot more fluff ;)

* * *

"He isn't here," Matthew stated, shoving a spoonful rice pudding into his mouth.

"I'll give you an Outstanding for I would have never noticed that," Albus grumbled and took a sip of the pumpkin soup in the bow in front of him. "But really, where is he? He promised to meet me at lunch."

"Aww, he promised?" Matt grinned and wiggled his brows at him.

Albus groaned. "Could you calm the fuck down? We don't even know him since one day!"

"But if you didn't meet him yesterday but, I don't know, first year on the train?"

Albus shot him a very not amused look but couldn't help himself from painting that scenario with colours. "Maybe," he admitted eventually, and took another sip to hide his blushes cheeks.

"You met me first year on the train." Matthew pouted. "And yet you don't think about dating me."

Albus gave him a deadpanned look. "Who would think about dating you? You look like a troll," he teased and ducked under Matthew's hand that was supposed to hit the back of his head.

"You're kidding! You look like a bowtruckle yourself with your skinny legs in your super skinny jeans!"

"Yes, yes, I am kidding. Actually, I dream about you every night, sweetheart." Albus winked and ran a hand through his dark fringe.

His friend grinned back. "Watch it, jerk."

Albus sticked his tongue through his teeth before turning back to his half-emptied bowl. "Really though, where is he?"

"With your Ravenclaw bitch coming at him like that I wouldn't appear at lunch either," Matthew thought loudly.

"She isn't my bitch," Albus hissed back.

"You dated her once," Matthew clarified. "And now she's acting like a bitch."

"We didn't even properly date," Albus said, frowning. "I mean, we kinda did, but I broke up with her as gently as I could. I even told her it was not her fault but mine."

"Really? That's so cliché." Matt shook his head, laughing.

"We didn't even kiss. She can't possibly think I used her for anything." Albus chewed his bottom lip.

"Dude, calm down. She's just pissed that you like boys. And she's pissed that oh holy Voldemort's handsome son is suddenly best friends with you."

"He isn't Voldemort's son!"

"Dude, I said calm down." Matthew sighed and continued eating. "I'm kidding. I don't think he's Voldemort's son. I'm not that much of a troll."

"Good," Albus grumbled and shoved more soup violently into his mouth. Then, he stopped. "You really think he's down because of that?"

Matthew rolled his eyes so far back that Albus was scared they might disappear inside the back of his friend's head. "No, I think he's busy watching butterflies, you idiot. Of course I think he's down because of that."

"I'm going to check on him then," Albus announced and stood up, shoving the bowl away from him and causing the soup to drip in the table, but he chose to ignore it.

"Sure you aren't gonna check him out?" Matt smirked at him.

"I won't! He's down!" Albus stared at him as if he was trapped within the wrong movie. He'd never, ever check someone out who needed help. To his moral, that meant almost the same than taking advantage of someone.

"I bet you're gonna check him out," Matthew insisted and laughed loudly, tilting back on the bench.

"Fuck you," Albus grumbled, finally realizing that his friend was simply making fun of him.

"Oh, I'm gonna fuck your cousin," Matthew grinned, his eyes glinting victoriously.

"Don't wanna hear!" Albus covered both of his ears with his hands and hurried his way out of the hall, though not fast enough to miss Matthew bursting out laughing again.

"Scorpius." He closed the door to their dorm behind him and leaned against it, unsure whether he was supposed to approach the boy or not.

"Aren't you at lunch?" Scorpius looked up at him and put his book down. Strains of light blond hair were falling over his eyes, making him look incredibly beautiful if it weren't for his forced happy face.

"You said you'd meet me there," said Albus softly and finally decided to sit down on his own bed, facing Scorpius.

"I wasn't hungry." Scorpius looked at his book while he pronounced that lie, unable to meet Albus' emerald eyes. Unable to meet anyone's eyes at all when he was lying in general, but especially not those of a person who had been so nice to him.

Albus swallowed the saliva that had collected in the back of his mouth and chose to change the topic. "What are you reading?"

"The potions book." Scorpius shrugged. "I'm not exactly what you'd call well in that class. I figured reading it might help. It isn't, though."

Albus cocked his head to the left side. "We have potions class together, right? I can help you." Albus bit his bottom lip. "If you want."

The blond boy paused and waited a few seconds, a small torturing eternity for Albus, until he glared up at him, his lips curved into a tiny smile that finally, finally reached his eyes. "I'd love that."

Albus grinned back shyly. "Great. Cool. I mean, cool. Hey, um, I wondered, do you want me to show you around? Sneak out to Hogsmeade as well, maybe, since James isn't here anymore I have the map _and_ the cloak, it's pretty cool."

Scorpius frowned. "What happened to James?"

Albus glared back confused for a few seconds, then smiled in realization. "Nothing. Just left Hogwarts after he got his NEWTs last year."

"Oh." Scorpius smiled sheepishly. "Well, I have no idea what map or cloak you mean, but please show me around, yes."

Albus flushed. "The marauders map is like, uh, a map oh Hogwarts that shows where everyone is and secret corridors and stuff and the invisibility cloak, well, it makes you invisible." Stammering, he ended his explanation.

Scorpius chuckled quietly. "How about you show me the official ways first? I somehow ended up in a broom cupboard while I was trying to find my way back here." He hadn't finished talking yet when he opened his suitcase and pulled out a jumper.

Albus wondered whether he should dress in something else as well, but eventually decided to stay with what he already was wearing. His wand was much more comfortable in the pocked on the inside of his cloak than in the back pockets of his jeans with the omnipresent danger of hexing his ass off by accident.

He waited until Scorpius was ready and then stood up as well. "Can we go?"

"Sure," Scorpius smiled and followed him out of the dorms, close after him as if in fear he could lose his guidance. Albus ignored the very few people gathered within the common room that looked up and fixated their hungry eyes on the blond boy behind him. He was so close that he could almost feel how he shifted awkwardly, scared even.

He paced directly to the dark wooden door without gifting them with another glare, discreetly tugging on the sleeve of Scorpius' jumper to make sure he did the same thing. Once they had left the room, Albus turned around to him and gave him a, how he hoped, encouraging smile.

"Saw the second-year's girl in the back? She only stared because you are attractive," he stated and wondered within the same second with the words just having left his lips why the fuck he said such bullshit. Or worse, such obvious bullshit.

"I know they didn't, but thank you," Scorpius answered gently and smiled weakly.

"Of course," Albus muttered, turning his face away in embarrassment. "Uh, any places you want to know how to reach? It'd be hard to show you everything. Even I doubt I know this place well enough to call myself a prefect."

"Just knowing all the classrooms would be a good start. I have Arithmancy class tomorrow and absolutely no idea how to get there." Scorpius shrugged, apparently glad about the change of topic.

"Professor Vector teaches it, right? Never took that class myself, but Matt and Rose do. It should be on top floor, near the Ravenclaw tower. Come along!" Albus flashed him a grin and started running along the corridor towards the next staircase.

Scorpius sighed and hurried after him. "All schools of wizardry are that big, huh? I head Muggles have _elevators_. You heard of them? They are moving rooms, driving all the way upstairs! I bet nobody gets lost in these."

The black-haired prefect laughed. "We can't keep up with our moving staircases I guess. They _want_ you to get lost!" He exclaimed as he jumped on the first stair.

Three hours later and overly exhausted, Albus allowed himself to fell onto the grass next to the Quidditch pitch and to look right into the, despite it being autumn, bright blue sky. He had shown Scorpius pretty much all of the used classrooms, which was really quite a lot.

Somewhere near to the end of the tour, a staircase had changed direction to the middle of nowhere and had lead them to the kitchen, which the boys had taken as an excuse to sneak in and ask the House Elves for a small storage of chocolate frogs. Of course, _small_ wasn't exactly a word House Elves were familiar with, and now their pockets where overflowing with more chocolate frogs than they could possibly open.

On top of that they had gotten a few jelly slugs, which Scorpius pulled out as he sat down next to him. "Want one? I love them. When I was younger, Mum always said, sweets, they help you make friends." His voice faded slowly while he glared at the jelly candy between his fingers.

"She sure is a nice Mum," Albus commented and smiled at him, taking another jelly slug out of the box and slit it between his lips.

"Yeah," Scorpius answered and lowered his gaze. He opened his mouth again, but shut it close just a few moments after. Albus sensed there was something really important on the boy's mind, but he wasn't going to force him to talk about whatever it was.

"Do you like Quidditch?" he felt like he was constantly changing the topic, avoiding stuff while he didn't even know what exactly he was avoiding. But for some reason, he did not care about that effort at all. It felt good, talking to Scorpius, and it was surprisingly calming.

"Are you kidding? I love Quidditch!" Scorpius suddenly sat straight upright and stared at him with big, gleaming blue eyes. Albus didn't even properly hear his words. The faint afternoon sun reflected itself in them, creating a thousand tiny fairy lights, leaving him completely stunned by Scorpius Malfoy.

"O-oh?" He finally managed to ask, his lips too narcotic to form more syllables.

"Are you on the team?" Scorpius asked back, leaning forwards in excitement.

"Not really," Albus managed to pronounce even though he was still busy progressing just how beautiful Scorpius was. "I – I don't like Quidditch that much."

"Not?" Scorpius' face fell. "Why not?"

Albus immediately wished he had said something else. "I just... people on brooms... people throwing balls at you..." he shuddered. "Not really my cup of tea."

Scorpius shook his head in disbelief. "I was a seeker in Beauxbatons," he explained, smiling at the memory. "Not that good, I mean, not extraordinary. Not as good as I heard your Dad was."

"Please, don't talk about my Dad." Albus took another jelly slug and bit its head off. "I get that he saved the world and all but, well, I saved that little first year from falling down the stairs and nobody thanked me. Just shrieked and ran away," he added sarcastically.

"I understand." Scorpius' statement was calm, as always.

This didn't stop Albus from keeping talking, of course. "People need to stop comparing me to him. Like, everywhere I go, I always am the son of our bloody saviour or hero or whatever. Hero my ass, he knew one fucking spell. I'm not him. I know at least two."

Gently, Scorpius placed a hand on his shoulder. "I wasn't comparing you to him," he explained in that soothing voice of his, and Albus' anger sunk together like a house made of playing cards.

"You weren't?" Albus asked abashed, chewing his bottom lip and refusing to look at Scorpius.

"I wasn't," the blond boy answered, smiling gently.

"Sorry," Albus muttered, pulling himself up again. "You probably have it a lot worse than I do."

Scorpius shook his head, never stopping to smile, the tiny fairy lights never going out. "I'm fine," he said, pulling out two chocolate frogs. "Want one?"

"Are you very subtly asking me to be your friend?" Albus grinned at him, mischief glinting softly in the emerald green of his eyes.

Scorpius paused for a moment, his pale cheeks colouring faintly red. Then, he smirked back. "Is it working?"

Instead of answering his question, Albus leaned forward and snapped one chocolate frog out of Scorpius' open palm. Sticking his tongue out, Scorpius' cheerful laugh sounded like a symphony.

The sun over their heads lowered itself to the ground slowly, making emerald green eyes sparkle and turning white blond hair into pure gold.


End file.
